Thursday, 14 October 2010

Looks like I haven't updated in a while! This is mostly due to having lots to do at university and... *ahem*... Dead Rising 2...

Whilst unfortunately I don't have any guides for today, I decided to show you something I made for an animation project at uni. It doesn't have a pre-loader because I didn't design it for the internet, but it's pretty small so I'm hoping it won't need one.

If it does, expect a small update soon!

Here's a funny picture I found whilst procrastinating for my project. :)

Friday, 8 October 2010

Well, I'd write a guide about how to budget but I have a strict know-how-to-do-it-yourself-first policy on any guides I write, and as you may have judged by the title of today's post, I haven't quite mastered the art of budgeting yet...

Hmmm....

Anyways, seeing as I've been playing the titular game all day today instead of thinking of a guide to give you, I decided I'd talk about this game instead.

Wow! What a game! I haven't played Guitar Hero since World Tour (The band stuff was cool but the game itself didn't really stand out and Rock Band 2 ended up being more fun) and I was amazed at how much they've added!

The quest mode actually has a pretty decent story and cut scenes to engage you into the game, as well as super cool "powers" unique to each character you play, such as Multiplier Extender (5x max instead of 4x), Star Power Thingiewhatsit (Star Power sextuples [multiplies by 6] instead of doubles), etc.

It's super fun, and the guitar looks super cool too! Fun times!

While I'm here, I'm gunna link you to my guides so far for easy access - a good opportunity to check out guides you haven't seen yet!

I've put the Google Friend Connect guide at the top because I figure it's relevant to most people on here - you'd be surprised how many people follow me without a properly set up GFC account meaning I have no way of accessing their blogs...

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

So. Let's say you like getting drunk a lot. Let's also say you fancy yourself a bit of a hero and would like an opportunity to go "Yeah, just saved some lives the other day. Feels good man."

Well now you can do both all in the same day! How you ask? Just give blood!

First let me explain a bit about how you actually get drunk.

When you ingest alcohol, the ethanol in said alcohol passes into the bloodstream, causing alcohol intoxication, or drunkenness. It is at a certain percentage that you start feeling drunk, and this is what we are going to use as a basis for the guide today.

Say you normally get absolutely wankered off two bottles of vodka, a bottle of wine and a six pack of beer, and you plan to get absolutely wankered today. Let's do the maths!

Note: If maths isn't really your thing - when you give blood, to get the amount of drunk you'd normally get off two bottles of vodka, a bottle of wine and a six-pack of beer, you'd only have to buy the two bottles of vodka and the bottle of wine, because the same amount of alcohol is going into LESS blood, increasing the blood-alcohol ratio. Money saved! You can skip to the word of warning at the bottom now. :)

The maths bit:

30 (units in vodka) x 2 = 60

30 (units in wine) = 30

12 (units in 6 pack) = 12

So it normally takes you 102 units altogether to get satisfactorily trashed, so let's divide that by 10 to give us a golden figure of 10.2 per pint of blood.

Now let's say you've just given blood and want to party hard - you've lost a pint of blood so let's do the maths!

If you divide 102 by 9 instead of 10 this time, we get a golden figure of 11.3.

I'll now show you what this actually means by adding up the golden numbers per pint for both 10 pints of blood (10.2) and 9 pints of blood (11.3) until we get to 102 (the agreed number of units it takes to get nicely hammered without giving blood).

10 Pints | 9 Pints

10.2 | 11.3

20.4 | 22.6

30.6 | 33.9

40.8 | 45.2

51.0 | 56.5

61.2 | 67.8

71.4 | 79.1

81.6 | 90.4

91.8 | 101.7

102 | -

See that? If we get 101.7 (which is the closest to 102 we're gunna get) and take 91.8 away from it (the 10-pint equivalent at this stage), that leaves us with the SAME amount of drunkenness in 9.9 less units of alcohol. That'll save you from having to buy that 6 pack of beer! Extra money in the bank!

A word of warning though, and you won't just hear it from me - you're not really supposed to drink alcohol for 24 hours after you've given blood, and it's pretty much for the reason I've just given throughout the entire guide. You get drunk easier, which means you're more likely to get alcohol poisoning, etc etc.

So if you're going to do this (or just drink excessively in general), make sure you look out for yourselves and be careful - I wouldn't want any harm done to my wonderful readers. :)

Hope you enjoyed today's guide! I read all of yesterday's comments (like I always do :)) and have taken into consideration all of the guide ideas, and plan to eventually write you guys up a guide for each suggestion you've made - you might recognize this guide from one of them... ;)

Monday, 4 October 2010

Well, I was going to do a food related guide today with pictures, but people were in my kitchen and I was too embarrassed to take pictures of me cooking. Maybe tomorrow!

On the subject of tomorrow, sorry about the slight delay in posting - I was on a trip to Hastings on Sunday and I decided I'd not worry about blogging for a day. Seems fair enough I think. :)

I'd do a different guide today but I have a trial run at promoting for a club in Southampton to see if I'm good for the job (hope I get it!) in about half an hour and these guides actually take a while to type out and proof read...

So today - just sit back, relax, take a sip of that morning coffee (you can always microwave it if it's stone cold by now - I know mine would be, it's 8:11 in the evening...) and enjoy my vague commentary about the last couple of days.

Actually, you've already read it, so I hope you enjoyed it. :)

While I'm here, is there anything you'd be interested in reading a guide about? I'm open to suggestions (I'm only going to think of so many things day-to-day without running out of ideas ;)) so feel free to suggest stuff in the comments section below - I guess this blog entry is a good oppurtunity!

Saturday, 2 October 2010

As I look through all my wonderful followers on the Google Friend Connect bit of my blog, I notice that many of them do not have links to their blog when I click on their little icons. This is unfortunate, because if they haven't left a comment, there is simply no way I can visit them. Upon further inspection, even though I had taken measures to show my blog on my GFC profile, I was doing it all wrong and my blog still wasn't showing up. It took a while, but I figured out a way that worked for me, and will almost definitely work for you too.

You can do this right here from my blog, so why not set up your account to link to your blog right now? :)

Step 1 Go to the Followers section on the right hand side of the blog (or wherever it is situated). Click on Sign in.

Step 4 If you haven't already, this is a chance to follow my blog! Click the 'Follow this blog' button. If you already have, you may skip to Step 6. Alternatively, if you just don't want to (you can decide to later though if you want!) click on More options and skip to Step 8.

Step 5 Click Done.

Step 6 Now the screen you were just on will disappear, which means you have successfully signed in and followed my blog. Hurrah! Click on any picture you want - I chose my own for the screenshots, but it really doesn't make a difference.

Step 7 Now you'll want to click the Settings link at the top-right of this screen.

Step 8 Your screen may now look something like this. Click Change next to where it says 'Currently using your Blogger profile'.

If instead of Edit Blogger profile you have a list of three links (Edit basic information, Add a photo, Add links), skip to step 10.

Step 9 On the screen that pops up, click on the (Unlink) link.

Step 10You should have three links next to your picture (if you have one) along with your profile name. Click on Add links.

Step 11 Your blog should be under the 'Add a suggested link' section! Tick the box! If it isn't listed, type the URL of your blog into the 'URL' box and whatever you want (preferably the blog name) into the 'Link name' box. Click 'Add'!

Step 12 Everything should now be done! Next time you click on your icon you should have your blog link in all its glory for all to see and click on!

Friday, 1 October 2010

A tricky question. But luckily, one with a magical works-every-time answer.

You see, most of the time when someone asks you this, they aren't actually asking because they're considering it, they're asking because they've already decided to and want your opinion. The real question should be:

"I'm going on a diet. I want to know what you think of this."

The problem is, this puts you in a choke-hold. If you insist that they don't need to, it'll be futile and frustrating because they've already made a decision to and they're not going to change that - and if you agree that they do... well, you've basically just called them fat, which everybody knows is a very bad idea.

So, what is the perfect answer? The answer that has worked for me countless times and will probably work for you too:

"While I do not think you need to go on a diet, if you make the decision to, you have every right to do what you think is best for your body and I will support any decisions you make."

Because they'll either be expecting to be insulted or to be in a big long argument about whether they're fat or not, this'll come to quite a pleasant surprise, and they'll probably like you a bit more for it too.

One word of advice though - please be sincere about it. If you say you're going to support their decision - actually support it - you're not allowed to contest against it later because that invalidates everything you've just said - while this is most of the time a 'magic' answer, it isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card ;)

So! Second guide complete! I hope you found it enjoyable to read and useful for years to come - if you have any comments, questions or anything to add, feel free to leave something in the comments section below - also, if you haven't read the first guide yet, go do that too! :)